The first in a series of seven new St. Louis Wingstop Restaurants opens February 14 in Breckenridge Hills, Missouri.

This will be the first franchise endeavor for Dick Dempsey, after 30 years as a mining engineer. Dempsey first found Wingstop listed as an up-and-coming franchise opportunity on the web. He followed up with a visit to the Wingstop web address and then their headquarters in Dallas.

Jim Deering, vice president of Wingstop, explained that the St. Louis store is the 24th store to open with 38 more currently under development in Texas, Missouri, Louisiana, Colorado, Alabama, and Oklahoma. Regarding the company’s rapid expansion, Deering said, “We’ve only been selling franchises for a little over two and a half years. Currently, we receive approximately 200 requests per month for franchise information.”

Dempsey plans to open two more Wingstop locations in 2001. The remaining four stores are slated to open by the middle of 2002.